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Digital Estate Planning

02/03/2015

Everyone wants to save money and sometimes doing things yourself, rather than hiring an expert, can be a good way to save. For instance, mowing your lawn may not be fun, but it's not particularly difficult and doing it yourself could save money. And if you make a mistake? Not to worry, the grass will likely grow back in a few weeks! On the other hand, few of us would sign up for a do-it-yourself course on performing your own root canal. Other choices might not be quite so obvious. Like your estate plan. Forms are available for downloading online that promise buyers they just need to read the instructions and fill in the blanks to create their own wills and trusts.

One major problem with these services is when estate planning is not done properly it is much more expensive to fix things than it would have been to hire an attorney to do things right in the first place.

If you are considering making your own estate plan, take some time to read the stories in the article. Hopefully, that will inspire you to go ahead and visit an estate planning attorney to make sure that you do not make mistakes doing things on your own.

Much of what passes for estate planning today is little more than word processing. Someone asks a few questions and then fits you into their pre-defined box. This isn’t planning – This is simply document preparation. Don’t settle for word processing in place of quality planning!

12/23/2014

Wait, you can still connect with Robin Williams on Facebook? As strange as it seems since Williams passed away several months ago, you can still "like" his Facebook page according to The Ledgerin an article titled "Access Bill: Clarify Online Life After Death."

It appears that someone else had access to Williams' account when he passed away and has left the page open for fans to express sympathy for Williams' family and pay tribute to Williams himself.

Most people, however, do not share their Facebook passwords with other people.

When they pass away, their families have a difficult time accessing the accounts.

Under current privacy laws and Facebook policies, no one can access the account without prior approval of the account holder. The obvious problem is that if the account holder has passed away, approval to access the account cannot be given.

Many states are attempting to change laws to allow access to digital accounts after the owner has passed away. However, changing laws is often a slow process.

Until the laws in your state do change, it is important to plan for what will happen to your Facebook page and other digital accounts after you pass away.

When their loved ones have passed away, many people experience great difficulty gaining access to the deceased's digital accounts, such as email accounts, social network accounts, and online bank accounts. In some cases, as soon as the online company hosting the account is officially informed that an account holder has passed away the account is closed and all of the content is subject to deletion. This has caused frustration and angst for many grieving families. In response, some states have passed laws providing access to digital accounts if certain conditions are met.

The tech companies charge that the proposal assumes the deceased wanted to allow access. That is true. However, unless stated otherwise in a legal document, the proposal does allow access to digital accounts. Companies who do not necessarily have the best record on protecting customers' privacy are now objecting to this proposal on privacy grounds. The battle between the tech giants and the Uniform Law Commission is one that will be played out from state to state in the next few years.

09/19/2014

Properly planning an estate requires that you think about all of the little things someone might need to know to effectively administer your estate and wrap up your affairs. This planning goes beyond the basic estate planning documents, such as a will, trust and powers of attorney. In a recent article titled "There's More to Estate Planning Than Just the Will," the New York Times details some other information you might need to gather and make accessible to someone administering your estate.

The list includes:

Passwords and Login Information - For someone to administer your estate, they need to know how to access your accounts.

Tax Documents - If the IRS decides to audit you or your business after you pass away, it will be important to have your tax documents and receipts.

Medical History - Younger relatives may someday need to know about what illnesses run in the family.

Regular Bills - If a company routinely debits your bank account or credit card, an administrator needs to know about this so the payments can be stopped.

Keys - Make sure someone will know how to open everything in your home.

While the list from the New York Times is not exhaustive, it certainly is a great start. Every estate is different. However, every estate is similar in that the estate plan needs to include more than just the standard legal documents. It also needs to include information about how to effectively administer your estate.

An estate planning attorney can assist you with how to make sure that your estate plan includes everything that is truly needed.

06/03/2014

A recent survey from Pew Research revealed that 51% of American adults bank online, and 32% bank using their mobile devices. With almost nine out of 10 Americans using the Internet, there is a strong need to include digital assets in estate plans.

As a recent article in the Wall Street Cheat Sheet titled "Estate Planning 101: Don’t Forget About Your Digital Assets" notes, digital assets hold both financial and sentimental value to family and friends, and this should be addressed in the estate planning and administration process. First you must find the person’s digital property and identify which digital property is valuable or significant. In addition, there are passwords, encryption, computer crime laws, and data privacy laws to deal with, any one of which can make it nearly impossible to do anything with the digital property.

In order to protect your digital assets, the Wall Street Cheat Sheet article recommends including them in a will or trust and designating a fiduciary to execute your wishes. It also recommends that you should add a provision in your estate plan granting your fiduciary access to your online accounts and data in the event of your incapacity or death.

Completing an inventory of your digital assets is the initial critical step in this process. Include usernames and passwords for your electronic devices, bank accounts, utility accounts, email accounts, insurance plans, and any other significant online accounts used frequently. Also, if there's information you do not want disclosed to family and friends, you should give instructions in your estate plan on how that information should be handled. The will should contain only the instructions on where to find your usernames and passwords, such as a safe deposit box. The article reminds us that even social media websites such as Facebook should be included in your inventory list, if they hold sentimental value.

Think about all of the information you have stored online—plan ahead and call us today about digital assets and other estate planning strategies. For more information on this and other elder law and estate planning subjects, contact Idaho Estate Planning and schedule a consultation. Remember, good planning is no accident.

05/29/2014

Accessing a decedent's email or other online accounts after his or her death can be extremely difficult due to privacy and licensing agreements. A provider’s legal terms of service may allow the company to simply deactivate the address. Then what?

People can designate assets they don’t want to be included as part of their estate. While an executor of your estate might have access to your stock portfolio or bank account, they can’t necessarily touch them until properly authorized. It would be the same with digital assets under this proposal in the Delaware Legislature.

The digital assets bill has been in the works for more than three years and has backing from the Delaware Bar Association. If it passes, the bill would be the first comprehensive law of its kind in the state. Seven other states including Idaho grant different levels of access for digital assets.

05/09/2014

In addition to your tangible assets, your digital assets should be included in your estate plan. In a 2011 survey that was sponsored by McAfee, the security technology company, Americans on average valued their digital assets at nearly $55,000. These digital assets may have emotional or sentimental value, such as a online family photos or a blog that an heir wants to keep as a memorial to the deceased.

These types of assets can also have monetary value. Examples include a business website that family members or employees intend to continue or an e-stock account. Other types of digital assets are e-mail accounts, social media accounts, music libraries, online documents, virtual currency accounts (e.g., Bitcoin), as well as online banking and commerce services.

The best way to protect your virtual assets, the article explains, is to include them in your will or trust and to designate a digital executor to handle them. Experts advise you to specifically grant your heirs access in those documents and keep a master list of the accounts and the accompanying passwords in a safe place like a safe deposit box. Note: Don't put the passwords in the will or estate plan, just instructions on how to locate them!

The original article cautions that just because you created an estate plan and a master list doesn't mean that your heirs will have easy access to your accounts; some user-service agreements and regulations could restrict their access.

The article notes that some digital-asset sites are starting to address the whole issue of allowing access by heirs. For instance, Google has the “Inactive Account Manager.” This feature allows the account holder to determine what happens once the account is inactive for a certain period of time.

Experts believe that this is just the beginning—digital access issues will become even more important in the days to come.

04/09/2014

Estate planning goes way beyond your tangible assets. In the technological world, you also have to plan for your digital assets. How would one access your bank accounts, credit cards, investments, and the like when you are no longer here to provide the password?

"Planning your digital afterlife," as Fox Business calls it, can prevent numerous headaches for loved ones by taking a few simple measures. This will decrease the chances of family members becoming online sleuths (by design or default) after you're gone. The article suggests these ideas:

Keep a snail mail trail. Even if you do business mostly online, you should ask to receive some paper statements so your heirs can have info on your accounts from mail delivery; and

Consolidate your accounts. Combining financial accounts or at least moving assets to a small number of institutions will make them easier to track.

01/30/2014

Just when you think you've covered all your bases when planning for your estate, the issue of your digital accounts comes up. Yes, all of your online accounts need to be considered too. Have you made proper arrangements for them?

The problem of the digital estate is an entirely 21st century problem. Thankfully, more information is coming to light about the consequences of failing to make plans for digital assets. If this is a new subject matter for you, then you will want to read a recent MarketWatch article titled “Who gets your digital fortune when you die?”

Basically, your digital “fortune” includes all of those digital assets that make up your digital presence. There are the social and practical ones, like e-mail accounts, Facebook accounts, and whatnot. From there your digital estate may include assets with real monetary value, like PayPal or eBay accounts, investment accounts, full bank accounts, and maybe an online-only bank account or two. While we are at it, remember the accounts that represent your ownership of digital “goods,” to include that massive Kindle library or an iTunes account. What happens to these?

Without proper planning, your digital assets can easily become loose ends, losses and even liabilities. Unless you leave instructions behind, how will your heirs inherit your digital estate (let alone know it even exists)? There is no time like the present to get your digital ducks in a row.